Fred LeBlanc: Reviving Rock And Roll

By Scott Locklear

Originally Published In The May 2006
Issue Of DRUM! Magazine

“Cowboy Mouth is like a kick-ass, New Orleans rock-and-roll
orgasm,” insists drummer and lead singer Fred LeBlanc. And
we’re in no shape to argue — there’s barely energy
enough to lie back, light a cigarette (forget you heard that, kids), and
thank the loin-shaking heavens.

Though destined to keep an audience weak in the knees, the Louisiana
native had something of a shaky start himself. “I was born
deaf,” he says, “and my folks used to put my head on the
stereo speakers when I was a child so I could feel the
vibrations.” No, we didn’t believe him either, but —
incredibly — it’s all true: Baby LeBlanc entered the world
with overgrown tonsils and adenoids that blocked his hearing passages.
The condition was treatable, but doctors couldn’t help until he
turned three years old. “My lungs were very weak — they were
underdeveloped — so they [the doctors] had to wait until my lungs
were strong, which is pretty funny when you see me today,” laughs
LeBlanc, unleashing a bit of the vocal power that keeps Cowboy fans
coming for more. “So music was like my first communication. I was
always told I could sing before I could talk.”

If that wasn’t sign enough, the subversive sway of Sesame
Street soon sealed the youngster’s fate. “I started playing
drums,” LeBlanc recounts, “because Oscar The Grouch was my
hero. For Christmas when I was five years old, the only thing I wanted
was a giant green garbage can, just like Oscar. So on Christmas morning,
there was a giant garbage can that had freshly been painted green. I
climbed in it, loved it, my brother and his friends used to roll me
around in it, and then one day, I turned it over, and I just hit it, and
I was like, ’Oh, yeaaaaaaah.’ And it was all downhill from
there.”

Or, really, a steady climb uphill. A cheap drum set eventually
replaced the garbage can, and LeBlanc quickly became the go-to drummer
in his neighborhood, honing his skinsman skills on a high school
production of Jesus Christ Superstar (“I brought [my kit] into the
rehearsal space where they were doing this, and people looked at me like
I had two heads”) as well as with the usual run of garage bands. A
five-year stint with Dash Rip Rock began in 1985, and though the group
successfully toured and released a few albums, LeBlanc grew tired of
“the vices and the excesses and the craziness” of the
lifestyle and quit to follow his own fortunes. A solo deal with EMI was
over by the end of 1990, but LeBlanc — determined and dedicated as
ever — was not done yet.